TheWordWhoIsHeAccordingToJohn
The Word”—Who Is He? According to John
“IN THE beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God.
That is how the first two verses of the apostle John’s account of the life of Jesus Christ read,
according to the Roman Catholic Douay Version and the King James Version of the
Holy Bible.
2 Thus at the very beginning of John’s account the
very first one to be introduced to us is someone who is called “the Word.”
After having such a sudden introduction to the Word, any reader would naturally
want to know who or what this Word was. In fact, since the second century of
our Common Era there has been a big debate as to the identity of this Word. And
particularly since the fourth century there has been much religious persecution
poured out upon the minority group in this debate.
3 The apostle John wrote his account in the common
Greek of the first century. Such Greek was then an international language.
Those for whom John wrote could speak and read Greek. So they knew what he
meant by those opening statements, or, at least, they could get to know by reading
all the rest of John’s account in its original Greek. But, when it comes to
translating those opening statements into other languages, say modern English,
there arises a difficulty in translating them right in order to bring out the
exact meaning.
4 Of course, the Bible reader who uses the generally
accepted versions or translations will at once say: “Why, there should be no
difficulty about knowing who the Word is. It plainly says that the Word is God;
and God is God.” But, in answer, we must say that not all our newer modern
translations by Greek scholars read that way, to say just that. For instance,
take the following examples: The New English Bible,
issued in March of 1961, says: “And what God was, the Word was.” The Greek word
translated “Word” is logós; and so Dr. James Moffatt’s New Translation
of the Bible (1922) reads: “The Logos was divine.” The
Complete Bible—An American Translation
(Smith-Goodspeed) reads: “The Word was divine.” So does Hugh J. Schonfield’s The
Authentic New Testament. Other readings (by Germans) are:
By Boehmer: “It was tightly bound up with God, yes, itself of divine being.” By
Stage: “The Word was itself of divine being.” By Menge: “And God (=of divine
being) the Word was.” By Pfaefflin: “And was of divine weightiness.” And by
Thimme: “And God of a sort the Word was.”
5 But most controversial of all is the following
reading of John 1:1, 2: “The Word was in the beginning, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was a god. This Word was in the beginning with God.”
This reading is found in The New Testament in An Improved Version, published in
6 So in the above-quoted Bible translations we are
confronted with the expressions “God,” “divine,” “God of a sort,” “god,” and “a
god.” Men who teach a triune God, a Trinity, strongly
object to the translation “a god.” They say, among other things, that it means
to believe in polytheism. Or they call it Unitarianism or Arianism. The Trinity
is taught throughout those parts of Christendom found in
7 Christendom believes that the fundamental doctrine
of her teachings is the Trinity. By Trinity she means a triune or three-in-one
God. That means a God in three Persons, namely, “God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost.” Since this is said to be, not three Gods, but merely
“one God in three Persons,” then the term God must mean the Trinity; and the
Trinity and God must be interchangeable terms. On this basis let us quote John
1:1, 2 and use the equivalent term for God, and let us see how it reads:
8 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with the Trinity, and the Word was the Trinity. The same was in the beginning
with the Trinity.” But how could such a thing be? If the Word was himself a
Person and he was with the Trinity, then there would be four Persons. But the
Word is said by the trinitarians to be the Second Person of the Trinity,
namely, “God the Son.” But even then, how could John say that the Word, as God
the Son, was the Trinity made up of three Persons? How could one Person be
three?
9 However, let the trinitarians say that in John 1:1 God
means just the First Person of the Trinity, namely, “God the Father,” and so
the Word was with God the Father in the beginning. On the basis of this
definition of God, how could it be said that the Word, who they say is
“God the Son,” is “God the Father”? And where does their “God the Holy Ghost”
enter into the picture? If God is a Trinity, was not the Word with “God the
Holy Ghost” as well as with “God the Father” in the beginning?
10 Suppose, now, they say that, in John 1:1, 2, God
means the other two Persons of the Trinity, so that in the beginning the Word
was with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost. In this case we come to this
difficulty, namely, that, by being God, the Word was God the Father and God the
Holy Ghost, the other two Persons of the Trinity. Thus the Word, or “God the
Son,” the Second Person of the Trinity, is said to be also the First Person and
the Third Person of the Trinity. It does not solve the difficulty to say that
the Word was the same as God the Father and was equal to God the Father but
still was not God the Father. If this were so, it must follow that the Word was
the same as God the Holy Ghost and was equal to God the Holy Ghost but still
was not God the Holy Ghost.
11 And yet the trinitarians teach that the God of John
1:1, 2 is only one God, not three Gods! So is the Word only one-third of God?
12 Since we cannot scientifically calculate that 1 God
(the Father) + 1 God (the Son) + 1 God (the Holy Ghost) = 1 God, then we must
calculate that 1/3 God (the Father) + 1/3 God (the Son) + 1/3 God (the Holy
Ghost) = 3/3 God, or 1 God. Furthermore, we would have to conclude that the
term “God” in John 1:1, 2 changes its personality, or that “God” changes his
personality in one sentence. Does he?
13 Are readers of The Watchtower now
confused? Doubtlessly so! Any trying to reason out the Trinity teaching leads
to confusion of mind. So the Trinity teaching confuses the meaning of John 1:1,
2; it does not simplify it or make it clear or easily understandable.
14 Certainly the matter was not confused in the mind
of the apostle John when he wrote those words in the common Greek of nineteen
centuries ago for international Christian readers. As John opened up his life
account of Jesus Christ he was in no confusion of mind as to who
the Word or Logos was and as to who God was.
15 We must therefore let the apostle John himself identify to us who the Word was and explain who God was.
This is what John does in the rest of his life account of Jesus Christ and also
in his other inspired writings. Besides the so-called Gospel of John, he wrote
three letters or epistles and also Revelation or Apocalypse. By many John is
understood to have written first the book Revelation, then his three letters
and finally his Gospel. Says Biblical Archaeology, by G. Ernest
Wright (1957), page 238: “John is usually connected with
16 This we shall now do. We do so with a desire to
reach the same conclusion about who the Word or Logos
was that the apostle John does. For us to do so means our gaining a happy
everlasting life in God’s righteous new world now so near at hand. John, with all the firsthand knowledge and associations that he
had, had a reason or basis for reaching an absolutely right conclusion.
He wanted us as his readers to reach a right conclusion. So he honestly and
faithfully presented the facts in his five different writings, that he might
help us to come to the same conclusion as he did. Thus, as we accept John’s
witness as true, we start out with a right aim, one that will lead to an
endless blessing for us.
WHAT ABOUT 1 JOHN 5:7, DY; AV?
17 If Trinity believers are not up-to-date, they will
ask: Does not John himself teach the Trinity, namely, that three are one? In
their copy of the Bible they will point to 1 John 5:7 and read: “And there
are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost. And these three are one.” That is what 1 John 5:7 says in the Roman
Catholic Douay Version and similarly in the Authorized or King
James Version. But the words “in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one” do not
appear in the oldest Greek manuscripts. Hence the most modern Bible
translations omit those words, the Bible edition by the Roman Catholic
Episcopal Committee of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine putting the
words in brackets along with an explanatory footnote, as follows: “The Holy See
reserves to itself the right to pass finally on the origin of the present
reading.”
18 The oldest Greek manuscript of the Christian
Scriptures is, in the judgment of many, the Vatican Manuscript No. 1209,
written in the first half of the fourth century. In our own copy of this Greek
manuscript as edited by Cardinal Angelus Maius in 1859, he inserted the Greek
words into the Manuscript copy but added a sign of a footnote at the end of the
preceding verse. The footnote is in Latin and, translated, reads:
From here on in the most ancient
HUMAN BIRTH ON EARTH
20 There came a time when the Word or Logos left the
personal presence of God with whom he had been in the beginning. This was when
he came down to earth and mingled with men. Says John 1:10, 11: “He was in the
world, and the world came into existence through him, but the world did not
know him. He came to his own home, but his own people did not take him in.”
When coming down, did the Word do the same as heavenly angels had done, still
stay a spirit person but merely clothe himself with a visible human body and
operate through this body in mingling with men? Or did the Word become a
mixture, an intermixture of that which is spirit and that which is flesh?
Rather than guess at it, let us allow John to tell us:
21 “So the Word became flesh and resided among us, and
we had a view of his glory, a glory such as belongs to an only-begotten son
from a father; and he was full of undeserved kindness and truth.” (John 1:14)
Other Bible translations agree that the Word “became flesh.” (RS; AT;
Ro; New English) This is far different from saying that he
clothed himself with flesh as in a materialization or
as in an incarnation. It means he became what man was—flesh and blood—that he
might be one of us humans. Search John’s writings as much as we can, yet we do
not once find that John says that the Word became a God-Man, that is, a
combination of God and man.
22 The expression God-Man is an invention of
trinitarians and is found nowhere in the entire Bible. What the Word called
himself when on earth was “the Son of man,” something very different from
God-Man. When he first met the Jew named Nathanael, he said to this Jew: “You
will see heaven opened up and the angels of God ascending and descending to the
Son of man.” (John 1:51) To the Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus he said: “Just as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted
up, that everyone believing in him may have everlasting life.” (John 3:14, 15)
In John’s writings the expression “Son of man” is applied to the Word sixteen
times. This indicates that it was by a human birth on earth that he “became
flesh.” His becoming flesh meant nothing less than that he ceased to be a
spirit person.
23 By becoming flesh the Word, who was formerly an
invisible spirit, became visible, hearable, feelable
to men on earth. Men of flesh could thus have direct contact with him. The
apostle John reports to us his own experience with the Word when he existed in
the flesh, that John might share that blessing with us. John says:
24 “That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have viewed attentively and
our hands felt, concerning the word of life, (yes, the life was made manifest,
and we have seen and are bearing witness and reporting to you the everlasting
life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us,) that which we have
seen and heard we are reporting also to you, that you too may be having a
sharing with us. Furthermore, this sharing of ours is with the Father and with
his Son Jesus Christ.”—1 John 1:1-3.
25 John brings to our attention the human mother of
this Son of man, but never by her personal name. John never speaks of her
firstborn Son as the “Son of Mary.” John mentions his human caretaker father by
name right near the beginning of the account, when Philip said to Nathanael:
“We have found the one of whom Moses, in the Law, and the Prophets wrote,
Jesus, the son of Joseph, from
26 For example, in his last reported words to her,
when Jesus was dying like a criminal on a stake at Golgotha as his earthly
mother and his beloved disciple John stood looking on, he “said to his mother:
‘Woman, see! your son!’ Next he said to the disciple:
‘See! Your mother!’ And from that hour on the disciple
took her to his own home.” (John 19:25-27) How long
John took care of Mary the mother of Jesus he does not tell us; but he never
tries to glorify her or beatify her, even name her, for being Jesus’ mother.
27 However, according to Trinity teachers, when “the
Word became flesh,” Mary became the mother of God. But since they say God is a
Trinity, then the Jewish virgin Mary became the mother
of merely a third of God, not “the mother of God.” She became the mother of
only one Person of God, the Person that is put second in the formula “God the
Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.” So Mary was merely the mother of
“God the Son”; she was not the mother of “God the Father,” neither the mother
of “God the Holy Ghost.”
28 But if Roman Catholics and others insist that Mary
was “the mother of God,” then we are compelled to ask, Who
was the father of God? If God had a mother, who was his
father? Thus we see again how the Trinity teaching leads to the
ridiculous.
29 Furthermore, the apostle John saw in a vision
certain heavenly creatures saying to God on his throne: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come,” and others saying:
“Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory, and honour, and power:
because thou hast created all things; and for thy will they were, and have been
created.” (Rev. 4:8, 11, Dy) The Bible is plain in saying that the
heaven of heavens could not contain the Lord God Almighty; and King Solomon’s
stupendous temple in
HIS BIRTHPLACE
30 Among the Jews a debate arose as to the birthplace
of Jesus who came from
31 “The next day the great crowd that had come to the
festival, on hearing that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of
palm trees and went out to meet him. And they began to shout: ‘Save, we pray
you! Blessed is he that comes in Jehovah’s name, even the king of
32 Yet, three years before that, when Jesus began his
public career in the land of Israel, Nathanael recognized Jesus’ connections
with King David, saying to him: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are King of
Israel.” (John 1:49) And in the vision to the apostle John the royal
connections of Jesus are emphasized a number of times. In Revelation 3:7 Jesus
himself says: “These are the things he says who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David.” In Revelation 5:5 an elderly
person says of Jesus: “Look! The Lion that is of the tribe of
33 The one who was the Word or Logos spent only a
brief time among men, less than thirty-five years from the time of his
conception in the womb of the Jewish virgin who descended from King David. As An
American Translation renders John 1:14: “So the Word became flesh
and blood and lived for a while among us.” Clergymen who believe in an
incarnation and a God-Man call notice to the fact that the Greek verb
translated “lived for a while” has its root in the word meaning “tent” or
“tabernacle.” In fact, that is the way that Dr. Robert Young renders the
expression, translating it: “And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle
among us.” Since campers dwell in a tent, the clergymen argue that Jesus was
still a spirit person and was merely tabernacling in a fleshly body and so was
an incarnation, a God-Man. However, the apostle Peter used a like expression
about himself, saying: “I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle, to
stir you up by putting you in remembrance: being assured that the laying away
of this my tabernacle is at hand.” (2 Pet. 1:13, 14, Dy) Certainly
by such words Peter did not mean he himself was an incarnation. Peter meant he
was merely going to reside for a while longer on earth as a fleshly creature.
34 The same Greek word used in John
Footnotes]
“Es war fest mit Gott
verbunden, ja selbst goettlichen Wesens,” The New Testament,
by Rudolf Boehmer, 1910.
“Das Wort war selbst
goettlichen Wesens,” The New Testament, by Curt Stage,
1907.
“Und Gott (=goettlichen Wesens) war das
Wort,” The Holy Scriptures, by D. Dr. Hermann Menge,
twelfth edition, 1951.
“Und war von
goettlicher Wucht,” The New Testament, by Friedrich
Pfaefflin, 1949.
“Und Gott von Art war
das Wort,” The New Testament, by Ludwig Thimme, 1919.
The title page reads: “The New Testament
in An Improved Version, upon the basis of Archbishop Newcome’s New Translation:
with a Corrected Text, and Notes Critical and Explanatory. Published
by a Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue, by
the Distribution of Books.”—Unitarian.
The New Testament—A New Translation and
Explanation Based on the Oldest Manuscripts, by Johannes Greber (a
translation from German into English), edition of 1937, the front cover of this
bound translation being stamped with a golden cross.
Says La Sainte Bible,
a new version according to the original texts by the Monks of Maredsous,
Editions de Maredsous, 1949, in a footnote under John 1:1: “1:1. The Word:
the Word substantial and eternal of the Father, constituting the second person
of the holy Trinity.” (1:1. Le Verbe: la Parole substantielle et eternelle du Pere, constituant la seconde personne de la
sainte Trinité.)
BÍBLIA SAGRADA, a translation from the
original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek by means of the French version of the
Benedictine Monks of Maredsous (
The Latin footnote reads: Exin in
antiquissimo codice vaticano quem hac editione repraesentamus legitur tantum:
οτι τρεις
εισιν οι
μαρτυρουντες,
το πνευμα, και
το υδωρ, και το
αιμα· και το
τρεις εις το εν
εισιν. Ει
την μαρτυριαν etc.
Deest igitur celebre Iohannis de divinis tribus personis
testimonium, quae res iamdiu criticis nota erat.”—Page 318.
Quoted from page 557 of The Goodspeed
Parallel New Testament—The American
Translation and The King James Version.
Edition of 1943.
From
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